


Variables Out Of Hand

by Birdfluff



Category: BioShock, BioShock Infinite
Genre: Alternate Universes, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2018-10-31 12:38:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10899528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdfluff/pseuds/Birdfluff
Summary: In the midst of fear, Elizabeth had opened a tear leading to a new world of horror she desired escape from, with the help of a few new companions.





	1. Act 1: Out of sight...

“Take my hand, lass! Grab my hand!”

Blood blinded her alongside a buzzing headache. Elizabeth reached out and frantically waved her hand for any contact. Someone grasped her wrist and began hauled her down an echoing hallway. Stomping reverberating behind them, a roar pierced at her ears.

“Left up here, prepare yourself!”

The force of the turn nearly ripped her arm out of place. Automatic doors sheened open. She felt two hands grab her shoulders and bring her onto the floor. The red world was cold and wet to the touch.

“What ar--”

The voice hushed her. 

Hurriedly, Elizabeth wiped the blood off her eyes with her sleeve. She blinked hard then surveyed her surroundings. From her spot, the clerk counter blocked most of the room aside the cash register at her feet. She looked at her hand to find it wet not with blood. This did not give her relief, and neither did the sound of door opening.

Covering her mouth, she watched yellow light fill up the room. It moved with the accompaniment of agitated groaning and stomping.

She felt a strong hand. Right, the voice had to have had a corporate body. Elizabeth shook herself to think clearly. The voice was unfamiliar to her. However, the accent was definitely familiar, she had no doubts in her mind about the Irish twang that sparked her memories of Shantytown.

“He knows we’re here, lass.” The same voice whispered unsuspectingly close to her ear.

Her body jolted. She looked to see a dark haired man in suspenders at her side, unscathed and clean of blood.

Appearing distressed, he hissed between his teeth as he leaned away from the yellow rays, “Goddammit...”

“Then what do we do?” She called back. “Can’t we sneak around him?”

“That is not the safest plan.”

“Well, neither is sitting here!” The Big Daddy stopped moving around. The fabric on his suit crackled as he turned. Elizabeth ducked her head, “Or coming here in the first place!”

The Irishman shot her a glare. “What other bright ideas do you got then? I don’t suppose you’ve got a gun in that dress of yours.”

“... No, but I have something else.”

From experience, tears were harder to open with a pounding head, however she pushed herself to bring it forth behind them. Elizabeth grabbed the man by the sleeve, threw him and herself into a shop where no Big Daddy stood.

Slowly, Elizabeth stood up to only have her legs crumble under her weight. She propped herself up onto the counter and exhaled. Groaning as she rubbed her eyes, Elizabeth looked to the man on the floor. He stared at her in awe.

“What did you do?” He asked, his tone hushed as if the Big Daddy was still in the room.

“I got us out of there.”

“... How?”

“It’s a um, new plasmid.” She kicked herself for using the same lie.

“That makes... portals?”

“It’s a sort of wish fulfilment. I brought us to a shop that doesn’t have a Big Daddy.”

“... I see.” He tepidly stood up, adjusting his strap, “Never heard of this plasmid.”

“It’s called ‘Tear’, it’s still in, ah, development.”

“You’re test running it?”

“Yeah.”

He slowly nodded while his searched the room. “Alright.”

Guilt panged at her chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to warn you.”

“Yeah-- no, no problem.” He breathed deeply, putting his hands on the counter. “... Are you alright?”

“Somewhat. I feel really dizzy.”

“I’m sure there’s some bandages somewhere here. You stay there.”

Elizabeth obeyed as she watched the Irishman vainly scavenge the store and then journeyed into the neighboring room. 

Soon, he trotted back into a room with a medkit in his arm, “Alright, let’s take a look--” He sucked air through his teeth, “Bloody hell.”

“Is it bad?”

“With what that monster can do, you’re practically unscathed.” He quickly opened up the medkit and began cleaning up her face with a cloth, “Lucky, the fact that you only got a minor concussion and a few lacerations.” He took out gauze, and he grimaced at her injury again. “He did cut you deep. I’m no doctor but I think you’ll survive. The bleeding looks to be slowing.”

“... That’s good to know.” She mentally noticed to not open tears while injured.

“Let me know if it hurts.” Carefully, he wrapped the gauze around her forehead. He stopped when she flinched. “Shit--”

“No! No, I’m fine, keep going, I’m fine.”

He made one more lap around her skull, cut, and scraped the gauze. “That should be good for now. We really shouldn’t stick around, but let’s give you a few minutes to secure yourself.”

“Thank you, Mister…?”

“Oh. Forgive me, lass. I’m Atlas.” He held out his hand.

“Thank you, Mister Atlas.” She smiled a little and took his hand to shake, “And it’s Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth.” Atlas said with a slight laugh, “Thank you for getting us out of that mess there, Elizabeth. Sorry for pushing you, I don’t think that plasmid was good for your head.”

“Yes, it’s probably best I don’t do that for a while.” Something odd struck Elizabeth as she gazed at Atlas. It took her a moment, but she was sure she had seen posters of him around Rapture. Who is Atlas?

“Didn’t you lead a rebellion?”

Atlas straightened up and smiled proudly. “I _am_ leading a rebellion. Ryan threw me and my boys here. In fact--” He paused as his face drooped. Worried consumed his gaze.

“What is it?”

“I honestly don’t remember what I was doing before I saw you. I thought… I had my boys with me but… We were alone, weren’t we?”

“Yes, we were.”

“I saw you and I knew I had to get you out of there, but before then I don’t remember a thing.” His eyes widened, “Does that tear plasmid of yours have memory side effects?”

“I-- Yes.” She quickly lied.

“Maybe, that’s it. Dammit, that’s… What do you remember?”

“I-I don’t know how I angered him, but all I know is that he was chasing me.”

Atlas nodded, “Right, right. What is this tear usually for? Certainly not this.”

Elizabeth shifted her weight. “W-well, it’s… ‘usually’ for… for example having tea sitting on a saucer and you use a tear and it becomes coffee. Or having money in your wallet when it was empty.”

“Not for a person to step through?”

“... Exactly.”

“We really should not do that again in that case. We don’t want to risk losing all of our memories.”

“Right.” Elizabeth’s mind spun. What the hell did Atlas mean he couldn’t remember anything? Booker didn’t have this problem. She would have to mull on it when her head wasn’t killing her. “What now?”

He snapped his fingers. “We should get to my safehouse. We need weapons and plasmids. I think we have some better medical equipment there too to help your head. My boys should be there too, we need extra muscle down here.”

“That sounds good. Ah, could you help?”

“Oh! Yes, of course.” Atlas held her under her shoulder and guided her legs to the ground. “Need me to hold you?”

“I-I think I can walk fine.” Elizabeth slowly pulled away from him. After taking a few wobbling steps, the world around her soon spun. 

Atlas rushed over and put his hand at her side, “You just lean against me. I’ve got you.”

~~~

“This is it.” Atlas led her to a steel door. Through the blur, Elizabeth could see a wide gleeful smile on his face, as if he were to say ‘home sweet home’. Atlas knocked on the door.

…

He knocked again. Concern and fear wrapped around him like a blanket. He slipped away from Elizabeth. “Hang tight.”

She swayed slightly as Atlas eyed the door. He reached out to knock once more but he instead pushed against the metal. Instantly, the door swung open.

Frantically, Atlas shot around. He leaned against the railing, calling, “Johnny? Gaben? ‘Ello? Where are you?!”

Deafening silence was the only reply. He crossed the threshold into the wet hallway and grabbed his hair. “Oh god, this isn’t good. It’s not safe, El--Elizabeth!”

Elizabeth stood inside the safehouse, putting her weight on the railing as she scaled down the stairs. Atlas scampered after her, gently grabbing her shoulder. “Elizabeth, be careful!”

“I’m okay. Don’t forget to close the door.”

“Ah--” Atlas looked at the steel door then back to find her stumbling around the room, looking through the assorted boxes. Closing the door, Atlas took a glance at the who he labelled as a ‘strange girl’ through narrowed eyes. 

“It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here for a while, Mister Atlas.” Elizabeth called out.

“That’s… What do you mean?”

“It’s all dusty. Unless none of you clean.”

“We--clean...” He said somewhat defeated. “What have you found?”

“Plasmids. Old Man Winter. Shock Jockey.”

“Those are good, but please sit down and rest.”

Atlas watched keenly as to make sure she settled herself down on one of the closed boxes. She let her back rest on the glass and shakily exhaled. Satisfied, he then pressed on the search for any pain relievers.

“Goddammit, these things are supposed to be labeled…!” He hissed under his breath. He opened another box that held weaponry. Atlas picked out a pistol that he hoisted onto his belt before continuing on.

After another circle, he found a small container of half used creams, bloody bandages, and gauze. “Fuck me...” He checked the surrounding crates to find no other medical supplies. “Just my luck.”

He grabbed the box and jogged over to Elizabeth. She was taking slow deep breaths. Her eyes closed. Careful to not wake her, he unwrapped the gauze and tried to ignore the grotesque injury. He had to watch his men get drilled through the stomach, have their intestine be clawed out, shot until they were transparent, and beheaded with a shovel. Those experiences desensitized him, but this wound made his gut swirl. Thankfully, it did not look infected.

Looking at her now, Elizabeth didn’t feel like she belonged here. He filed that question for later.

After cleaning the blood off her head, he fumbled with multiple creams before finding one that wasn’t empty and gently dabbed it over the injury.

Elizabeth cringed, her eyes popping open at the pain.

“Easy! Easy there--”

“It stings!”

“It’ll be over soon, I promise. Grab onto my arm if you need to.”

Since she was blindly searching for him, he took a hold of her wrist and placed it on his left forearm. As he rubbed the last drop, the blood had stopped travelling to his hand.

“Erm, I can’t feel my arm.”

“I’m sorry!”

Elizabeth watched him rummaged through the crate again for bandages that could still stick to skin. She noticed on his right hand a ring.

“You’re married?”

Atlas stalled, his chest stopped moving for a moment. “Aw, this? This is an engagement ring.”

“Congratulations.”

“No need for that. He--she found someone else. Probably realized I was a lost cause and went for some rich bloke in Fort Frolic.” Atlas merely shrugged, “made the right choice.”

“Isn’t that harsh?” She hesitated to ask.

“Hey, if my partner fell through, be a corpse. Liked Rapture too much. We couldn’t compromise. So we went our separate ways.”

Elizabeth nodded and waited in silence.

Before long, Atlas finished the last bandaging. To her surprise, she patted her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be alright.”

“That engagement ring says otherwise.”

He looked down at it, with a sullen smile, “... I suppose you’re right. I guess I’m not ready to let go just yet. Anyways, I’ll get you something to drink.”

“I’m sorry--” She called after him, “for bringing that up. You can ask about my pinkie if you want!”

“Couple of frenchies I’ve seen wear thimbles as fashion, mostly women. That right?” He vanished into the dark room before she could answer..

She twisted her thimble as she mulled his reply. He could be similar to Booker, look but don’t ask. This was the nearing a new decade, has fashion already repeated itself? There were clothing stores unable to be counted on two hands that fused culture to the Rapture way. Perhaps, she was simply not looking too closely. Elizabeth exhaled softly at the thought. 

A frantic shriek from Atlas had her fall onto her weak knees. “What the hell is this?!” His voice bellowed.

She climbed the crates to pull herself onto support. “Atlas?”

He rushed out of the room with a wine bottle and what looked to be a propaganda poster. “Look at this shit!”

Elizabeth squinted at the paper. It had a bald man smiling a friendly smile with arms outstretched. “‘Fontaine… he’s your pal’?”

From his bewildered expression, Elizabeth quickly realized her mistake. “Don’t tell me you don’t know who Fontaine is. How long have you been down here?”

“Not… very long. I-I know of him, I know he’s dead but...”

“… Fontaine is a bastard and, you’re right, he’s dead. He and Ryan were the top people killing Rapture! These posters are supposed to have me on it! These are my ideas!!”

“Okay! Okay, just stop yelling for a second.”

Atlas looked like he was about to go off on her but he stopped. Glaring at the poster, he took his hands and tore the paper to pieces. “This doesn’t make any sense! He’s dead! This has to be some sort of sick joke.”

“Um, what all did Fontaine do? How did he die?”

“Don’t know how he died. Ryan’s kept it all hushed up. Fontaine’s made those plasmids for one thing. Everyone didn’t notice his plan at first. The first few plasmids were like steroids, be stronger, be wiser. You’ve seen the commercials, I hope.”

“I have.”

“Right. But now we can shoot lightning out of our hands. Be it handy, but they’re addictive if you do it too much. You start getting ADAM hungry. And then along came the Little Sisters. Fontaine was a sick fuck.”

Elizabeth soaked this in. “Why was he doing all of this?”

“Only rumors but, it felt like Fontaine was trying to choke Ryan out of Rapture, so he could have it for himself.”

“But you started your rebellion after his death, right?”

“I did. I wanted people who wanted out of Rapture to get out, help the helpless. Thinking that keeping Ryan busy would help, but then he threw us here. As you know, Fontaine’s Futuristics sunk, so that’s going to make it all the more difficult for us to get to Rapture and get out of here.”

“Sander gave us a bathysphere. Why couldn’t we use that?”

His gaze made her feel as if she had spoken wrong. “Sander Cohen? Sent you down here? Who’s ‘us’?”

Sunking in air, she pressed on, “He was helping my client and I… I was helping this man look for a certain little sister-- Oh no, Sally--”

“Oh-hoho, nooo, you don’t!” He grabbed her by her shoulders. “We’re not going little sister hunting.”

“Why?!”

“We are a team of two people, going up against that _thing_ by ourselves is a death wish.”

From what little she knew of Atlas from her time down in Rapture, she was fairly certain he and his team hunted Little Sisters, like all the other splicers. “Why did you call it ‘hunting’?”

He eyed her, confused, “What word would you use?”

“A word that doesn’t imply cutting her open to take her ADAM.”

Elizabeth was not expecting a face of distress from him. He closed their space. “What? Those are little girls… they...”

She decided to push further, “You don’t want their ADAM? What about all this supplies here? The plasmids? Don’t you need ADAM for plasmids?”

“To buy plasmids and gene tonics, yes. We didn’t buy these.” 

“You are going against everything I’ve heard about you.”

Atlas frowned, his brows raised. “You don’t trust me then?”

“I didn’t say anything about trust. I just find it strange that… people will make something up to get people on their side.”

“You don’t get out much, do you?” He shook his head. “I’ve just been telling you all I know. It’s your decision.”

“You’ve been kind to me but it’s all so confusing.”

“Same to you. Why were you looking for a Little Sister anyway?”

“It was my client’s… daughter.”

His eyes became pitiful. “... I see. And since you were alone, I assume that he’s dead now.”

She hummed in affirmation. Thankfully, he died. She never wanted to hear ‘my child’ directed towards her again. “But I don’t want to abandon that little girl.”

“Trust me, with a Big Daddy, she’s safe. I don’t think there’s anyway to cure her. I’m sorry to say but you’ll just be chasing death if you go after her again.”

Elizabeth sat there, feeling as if she had been torn apart. “I see myself in her, Atlas. She’s trapped. I want to help her.”

“And I‘m telling you it’s suicide.”

Her heart was purged with a knife. She tensed, glaring. “You want me to forget about her?”

“We can’t all play the hero. I don’t know what happened here. I don’t know where my crew is. I don’t know if they’re alive or dead. Am I going to search for them? No. What would the point of that be? It would be stupid of me to go out of my way on a whim to think they’re still alive. If they’re alive, they’ll come back here, and if they aren’t, they won’t. I need to get on with finishing my goals and get out of here. I can’t save everyone in Rapture but I can damn well save whoever I can, like you.”

Elizabeth gazed down at her hands. They are similar.

Atlas knelt down to meet her eyes. His tone was soft, “I know that’s a hard lesson to learn, but we have to watch out for ourselves. We can’t always put others before our own.”

“It feels selfish.”

“I know it does. In some situations, I do feel selfish. But in this hellhole, it’s what we have to do to survive. Tell me you understand that?”

“... I do.”

Atlas put a comforting hand on hers. “She’ll get by. We’ll get by. Drink up.”

He gestured towards the wine bottle. For a moment, she was confused. That’s right, they still used alcohol for everything. Well, it’ll help with the pain, she thought as she pressed the bottle to her lips.

“You mentioned you got down here with a bathysphere, correct? You came here from the front?”

“Yes--There’s a back entrance?”

“We’re nearby it. Fontaine was a smuggler. He had to have had multiple entrances.”

“What all did he smuggle?”

“Anything under the sun, honestly.” Atlas fumbled through a container and withdrew a rifle, looking it over acutely. “Should we try the front then? Do you think the sphere’s still there?”

“It’s worth a shot.”

Thinking, Atlas removed the pistol from his pocket, examined it, then extended it with the handle towards her. He lowered his arm when he noticed she was drawing away from the weapon. “Elizabeth, you ain’t gonna survive without one of these.”

He noticed she was turning the thimble on her pinkie. “I… I really don’t like guns.”

“I don’t know what past relationship you’ve had with guns but my statement still stands.”

“I can take care of myself without a gun-- don’t give me that look!”

“Please just take it, in case of an emergency. In case we get separated.”

Awkwardly, Elizabeth took the pistol. It felt out of place in her hands. She wanted to drop it or throw it far away. She heaved a long sigh.

Since Atlas’ crate searching had continued, she stood up and made a loop around the safehouse. Entering what seemed to be an interrogation room, the dried bloodied up chair urged her to pass on by. Vintage printing machines and propaganda posters lining the ground with Fontaine’s image instead of Atlas. All of them were in different styles. Who is Fontaine. Fontaine is your pal. Fontaine, voice of the people.

“Huh...”

She knew something else must have to change when venturing through tears. However, she did not expect for the change to be this big. But why Fontaine? Were Atlas and Fontaine connected somehow? All of this gave her the same terrible feeling when they stood in Chen Lin’s cell...

Atlas seemed to have such a disgust for Fontaine. The why was easy, easy to hate a man she never met just for his actions alone.

That felt to be a constant.

Rapture was for the people who did not want to be ruled by religion or government or whatever Ryan’s prerecorded message jabbered about during the bathysphere down. He didn’t account for people want Rapture for their own… Hm.

“‘Ey, Elizabeth, you ready to go--” His calm tone grew dark instantaneously, “Ffft, I see you’re taking in the mockery here.”

When she faced him, she steadfastly ignored all the weapons attached to his back, “I was just thinking… How someone like him ends up down here.”

Atlas scoffed, “Good question. He’s a con artist from what I’ve heard.”

“You seem to know a lot about him.”

“I had to, I worked in his fisheries.”

“You did?” It seems like you know too much for working from such a low job, she added to herself.

“It was a good place for work, if you didn’t mind the smell.”

“How did you end up down here, Atlas?”

“Well… My aforementioned ex was down here first to scout it out, then invited me.”

“Your uh, ex was higher up than you? F-from that I mean, there is a lot of people that seem to be prestigious… Nothing against you--”

“No, no, it’s okay. You were right. In fact, tried to get me to work in those higher up places. They didn’t want me. They know a peasant when they see one.”

“Rapture seems to be for the rich, doesn’t it? And the poor gets sent somewhere else.” Another constant.

“That’s life.”

“It’s unjust. That’s not what life should be.”

“Well, that’s why we the people are trying to change it. Come along now. We need to get going.”

~~~

“I don’t think you’ve ever told me how you got down here.”

“Oh, my father--” She couldn’t stop herself in time.

“Your father? He worked here?”

“Yes. You wouldn’t know him. He was a private eye.”

“Heh, you’re right. I wouldn’t. You took after him then?”

“Yes.” Against my will. “He was on his deathbed. He died only recently.” She hid any amount of malice in her voice.

He stuttered an apology, “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure all this doesn’t help you.”

I’ve been through worse, she wanted to say, but that was an awful thing to say. “I’ll be okay. I’ve been trained to manage big problems.”

“Well, this is a big problem, alright.”

Elizabeth kept close beside him throughout the toy department. Only a few times did splicers become an issue that Atlas handled well with his rifle. She kept in mind to look for ammo and carefully stashed it when she found any. Atlas was nice company. It was good to have someone that wasn’t in need of you. In fact, he did look like he could do this all by himself, except of course, when it came to a Big Daddy.

In the back of her head, however, there was a twinge of curiosity. Atlas had to know more than he led on, but is he purposely hiding it or subconsciously?

She looked out at the ocean. If Rapture wasn’t the way it was, she might have given thought to live here. As of now, she grew sick of the ocean. 

Wait. She could see a building closeby, glowing in red tint. “Ryan Industries…?” She read out loud with a gasp, “Atlas!”

He whirled round. “What’s wrong?”

Elizabeth could only point.

He followed her finger and proceeded to drop his gun from the shock. “No… no, no, no, no, what...? That--that can’t…” He faced her again with eyes the size as plates, then looked back at the building. His voice was small when he spoke, “Well… that makes going there a lot faster.”

“What all in the hell changed…?” She mumbled, “This can’t be in the same time if… Did we travel backwards?” 

Atlas scrambled for his rifle and then grabbed Elizabeth’s wrist before bolting to the room of bathyspheres, ready to be launched.

“Oh my god. Oh my god, they’re all here!” There was no ounce of cheer in his voice. Atlas turned to her, mortified. She took it as a sign of those weren’t there before.

Suddenly, Elizabeth took control. Grabbing his hand, she threw him in the bathysphere and closed the door behind her. The menu of where bathyspheres were allowed to be was surprisingly limited. Dammit, how could they escape this way…? She looked towards Atlas who was a puddle on the cushions. “Do you know where any escape pods are?”

“Wha-- Neptune’s bounty. Why--?”

She pulled the lever.

“Wait!” Atlas got up but was thrusted down by the abrupt movement of the sphere. “How do you know that’s the same!”

“I don’t! We have to take our chances!”

~~~

Neptune’s Bounty was a mess. A dead Big Daddy was sprawled out on the floor. Machines to be bought from with ADAM were either demolished or knocked down. Elizabeth shielded her eyes from the crucified splicer hanging from the pillar in front of them.

“Bloody hell… What happened here…?” Atlas looked as white as paint.

Elizabeth stood back, breathing deep, “... Do you think this could have been stopped sooner?”

“Ryan tried but...” He couldn’t remove his eyes from the splicer.

For the moment, Elizabeth took his hand and forced through the linear damp hall that met with a door to an extravagantly large room that could be distinguished as a dock. 

“Christ, look at this mess…!”

Before either of them could step through the threshold, the sound of an angered Big Daddy froze them.

Atlas put an arm out and stepped backward, “It’s not on us. As long as we don’t engage it, it won’t hurt us.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Those things only attack if you attack it or get too close to the sister... Sounds like it’s chasing splic--”

As he spoke, a young man in a sweater bolted up the ramp, swung round, and fired a rifle at the screaming giant. He sprinted for cover behind the spools. That wasn’t a splicer. 

Did she do this too? Or was this already in course whether they were supposed to be here or not. Elizabeth couldn’t put her finger on where she had seen that man before.

The monster aimed a land grenade at the spool. Watching the man roll from his spot, lightning shot from his hand followed by an onslaught of bullets. Slowly, the Big Daddy collapsed. Loud wails echoed the room as a Little Sister rushed to his side.

The man in the sweater immediately piped up and over to her, putting his hands on her. “Whoa, whoa, hey--! Easy there, eaaaasyy.” 

Soft red glow emitted from his hand as he touched the girl’s head. There was a bright burst of light. Somehow, the girl’s eyes were not grotesque red and her skin had received color. Atlas and Elizabeth gaped.

“Thank you!” She smiled and curtsied before scurrying to her hidey hole.

After exchanged glance, Elizabeth headed towards this mysterious sweater man. “Ah--excuse me?”

Suddenly, he whirled around with his rifle pointed at her head.

“Boyo! There’s no need for that!” A spray of bullets put holes in the wood when Atlas took an impulse and knocked the gun from his hand.

The sweater man withdrew a pistol, pointing it at Atlas. He breathlessly spoke, “Who are you?”

He put his hands over his shoulders. “My name is Atlas.” He gestured to Elizabeth with his head. “And her name is Elizabeth. We’re just trying to leave Rapture.”

He slowly lowered the gun, relief shined through his voice. “So am I… Sorry, I… I didn’t know-- see you. Shit, I nearly killed you-- I’m sorry.”

Atlas put a reassuring hand on. “Oi, I’d be on edge too after fighting those monstrosities.”

“That was… very… impressive,” Elizabeth said slowly, moving around the brute to Atlas’ side.

“Yeah… I didn’t think they could shoot grenades-- Sorry, I’m Jack. Atlas, Elizabeth. I didn’t know there was anybody else here, other than Tenenbaum, Fontaine, and Ryan--”

“Fontaine?” The two inquired in unison.

He eyed at them, curiously. “Yes, he’s been guiding me to help him out of here. His family is waiting for him in a sub-- Atlas, your nose is bleeding.”

Elizabeth felt a knot caught in her throat.

Atlas touched his nose, swaying slightly. “Jesus, I thought I grew out of this stupid thing.”

“Oh, here, I have medkits.” Jack piped up, reaching from his satchel and handing him a small aluminium box. “I need to get back with Fontaine--”

“Wait, don’t!” Elizabeth’s warning came too late. The radio whirred to life.

A voice with a brooklyn twang vibrated through the speakers, “Kid? What’s the hold up?”

“Fontaine, I found survivors! Atlas and Elizabeth! They’re trying to get out too. Do you think the sub would be big enough for all of us?” The radio was quiet for a moment and Jack’s excitement died, “Sir? Did you get that? I found survivors. Atlas and El--”

“That’s great, kid.” His voice came in slow and overflowed with venom, “Would you kindly kill them? Especially, this so called Atlas. Make sure I can hear him scream.”

Dead. The life from his eyes died. Jack dropped the radio and crashed into Atlas, brandishing a wrench. Elizabeth shrieked, falling back. Managing to gain a grip on his arms, Atlas fought against Jack’s strength.

“Lizzy! The radio! Hit him!”

“What good would that do?!” 

“Don’t talk back just do it!!”

“There has to be another way!” 

“Shoot him then!”

Determined, she yelled at Jack, “Would you kindly stop!?”

Jack blinked wildly. He looked to Atlas. Frantically, he got up with puzzlement dancing around him. “I-... Are you okay?”

“Kid? I’m not hearing any scre--” Finally, Elizabeth took her heel and crushed the radio. Fontaine’s words crackled to a halt.

Jack lifted Atlas to his feet. He took a hold of his forearms. “Jack. That man on the radio is untrustworthy and dangerous.”

Jack pouted, his shoulder sagged. “I… I know he can be abusive but he’s been trying to help me. I don’t think I could have gotten this far without him.”

“Someone abusive is not going to help you.” Elizabeth said calmly to remedy her own anger. “No matter how nice they are to you. They are going to do whatever helps them. I don’t think Fontaine was going to let you on that sub with him.”

His whole being drooped.

Out of sympathy, Atlas lifted his chin and gave him a small smile, “Hey. We’re going to make it out of here. We won’t leave you twisting in the wind.”

Sniffling, Jack returned the smile. “... Thank you.”


	2. Act 2-1: Secrets are hard to keep if you don't remember them

Neptune’s bounty reeked of fish that nearly knocked Elizabeth down when they first stepped in. Her stomach dipped but she was too preoccupied to notice. Everything here so deranged and jarring. Her anxiety rekindled and kept in like a shadow.   
Walking closely beside Atlas, Jack guided them through the neighboring room. She noticed a Little Sister place a Teddy Bear in front of the Gatherer’s Guardian vending machine. The girl had blonde hair tripping after her as she bolted towards the vent… A chill travelled up her spine which brought her back to the present.

“And I’ve been following him since. Fontaine was just directing me to Peach Wilkins.” Jack finished and gestured towards the pier below them.

Elizabeth didn’t like the way Atlas’ face scrunched up. He moaned, “I remember that bastard. Straight as a dog’s hind leg, he is.”

“You two worked together down here?” She inquired.

“Unfortunately--” A loud bang cut him off. Impulsively, Atlas pulled Elizabeth to the ground with him as a cannon ball exploded above their heads. “Christ, the bugger put a cannon turret up!” 

“Cover me!” Jack scrambled and rushed towards the turret, sending bolts of electricity out of his hand that sent the turret sputtering. From the noises, splicers below them shouted accompanied with splashing.

“C’mon lass, get up.” Atlas hurried after him, glancing behind him to make sure Elizabeth was with him. He watched her duck behind one of the poles. “Lizz, what are you doing?!”

She gave him a frantic smile. “Don’t worry about me, just shoot them!”

With brows furrowed, Atlas huffed as he occupied himself with focusing on the leatherhead splicer coming up the stairs wielding a tommy gun. 

Elizabeth covered her ears. Through squinted eyes, she saw Atlas throw himself onto the ground and pepper the splicer with six quick shots. The force sent the corpse down the stairs with tommy gun flying into the water. Atlas bolted up, savanging his bag. “Goddammit-- Boyo! What’s taking so long?” 

“This is kind of hard!” His hands shook as he fiddled with wires. “I’m not… really sure what I’m doing!” 

“What?! Ah!” Pain shot through his body. Atlas grabbed his left side and he let his weight lean against a pole.

Thinking fast, Elizabeth weaved behind Atlas and climbed over the debris to Jack. Without a word, she grabbed the wires from him as her mind spun her own library. 1950s, red wires, red wires should be connected over here… This black one needs go to the bottom. The turret beeped to life and turned onto the remaining splicers. The cannon ball landed in at their feet. They had vanished, aside from a few loose limbs drifting aimlessly.

Atlas heaved, “Well done--”

Elizabeth dropped down and snatched the bag from his side, rummaging through it, “ _You_ need to hold still.”

“Alright, alright,” he grunted as he sat down on the boards. Elizabeth took a medikit out of his satchel and began patching him up. Silence ran thick through the group mimicking a fog. Jack tepidly coughed, his hands rubbing his arms.

“Um, Elizabeth?” Jack prodded. Elizabeth gave him an acknowledging hum. “How’d you work that out?”

“I... had a lot of spare time... and a lot of books.”

She avoided the suspicious gaze Atlas provided her by pretending to be focused on bandaging.

Jack made a small interested noise. “I guess I could use those books... That was not my proudest moment.”

“... Was that your first time trying to hack a turret?” Atlas wondered

Jack squirmed. “No. There were a lot of turrets in Medical.”

“Did you hack those?”

“I got lucky sometimes and others I ended up shooting at.”

Elizabeth tightened the bandage around Atlas’ stomach, “How’s that?”

Atlas stretched. “Feels good... Thanks.”

She held out her hand to which he took and Atlas grunted as he stood up. It was Elizabeth’s turn to raise a cautious eyebrow, “Are you sure you’re not trying to be a man about it?”

That made him smile. “I’ve been through worse, Lizz. A stomach wound ain’t going to kill me… And no.”

She returned the smile then looked to Jack, who fidgeted in his spot. “You know, I can teach you how to handle with turrets..”

Jack’s shoulders laxed as he exhaled, “I’d like that a lot, thanks.”

Atlas patted his hanging leg. His kind expression transformed into a firm, dark grimace, “Let’s see what ol’ Peachy’s got in store for us.”

When the three entered, cold air that reeked of dead fish breathed on them like a wall, harder than before. They were greeted by a splicer’s corpse parked against a column with medic kits surrounding it as if to play a joke. Elizabeth felt her stomach bend and jerk by the fact that Atlas was picking them all up. She understood that Rapture had become a place that one has to kill and scavenge to get by but...

Urgently, she followed Jack who wandered around the pillar to the large door and a conveyor belt beside it. Ammo and guns were sprun about it. Out of instinct, Jack gathered the solidary supplies and trotted over to Atlas.

Elizabeth looked around once more before laying eyes on the door. She glanced at the two men. “Do I just…?”

Atlas shrugged, “Knock? Why not?”

Hesitating, Elizabeth tapped on the door. “... No reply.”

“Let me try, it’s steel.” Jack stepped forward and rapped at the metal with his wrench.

Still nothing.

Atlas shouldered to the front, yelling, “Peaches? It’s your buddy, Atlas. Will you open the door?”

The window violently slid open-- Atlas grabbed the two and forced them to duck with him-- gun fire shot over them. Suddenly, the door rolled open as the crazed man roared, “You!”

Before any of them could react, Peaches tackled Atlas to the ground, knocking the pistol out of his hand. Wilkens cut off his breathing with his elbow. He positioned his magnum against Atlas’ skull. “T-t-the imposter!! Fontaine to-t-told me all about you!” 

Elizabeth stumbled as she rose to her feet. Her eyes darted until her gaze landed on the pistol at her feet. She looked to Peaches. Shit. She fumbled for the trigger.

“We ca-ca-can’t have y-you run around here while Fontaine is pulling the str--”

A new hole was made at the back of Wilken’s head. His body collapsed onto Atlas. Feeling nothing inside her, her breath was caught in her throat, but there was no smoke that emitted the muzzle of Atlas’s pistol. Slowly, she gazed over at Jack and down the slide. Smoke. She wasn’t fast enough. Relief swept over her like a wave.   
Jack kicked Peaches’ corpse off Atlas.

“Thanks, mate… ” He breathed. Jack carefully helped him up.

“How’s your stomach?”

“I’m alright, everything’s fine.”

“Atlas,” Elizabeth breathlessly gasped. “You… I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I didn’t think… I’m sorry I shot him.”

Atlas shot him a quizzical look.

“Ever since I mentioned him you looked like you really wanted to shoot him.”  
Atlas broke out into laughter that abruptly ended by a spike of pain. He clapped Jack on the back and held there to compose himself. “You’re not wrong on that! It’s not like I was in the position to shoot him but... thank you for saving my skin.”

After taking a few deep breaths, Elizabeth recalled the gun in her hand. She cautiously stepped around the body and held it out to the Irishman, “Here.”

“Ah, thanks, Liz-- You look pale as a sheet. You alright?”

“I’m just a bit… shook up. I’ll be fine-- Jack, what are you doing?”

Jack froze in getting up, the Peaches’ radio clutched in his hands. “Look, it’s not what you think.”

Atlas stepped forward, “Boyo, Fontaine--" 

“I know but I need to tell Tenenbaum this.” 

“Mother Goose is still here?”

Jack hummed, “She’s been helping me too and I think she'd be great. She’s not like Fontaine...”

“Oh I know, but she’s in her own category.”

Jack gave him a disgruntled gaze before turning the radio on.

Atlas crossed his arms. “You’re attached to her, ain’t you?”

He kept his eyes on the radio, “Not attached… She’s nice. I’d rather listen to her than Fontaine.”

Atlas simply shook his head and drew his attention to Elizabeth. He whispered, “Can you believe this?”

“What do you have against her?”

“She’s the one behind those... things running around.”

“But Jack was helping them, so this Tenenbaum probably saw the error of her ways.”

“Oh, I know.”

“Wait, you do?”

“I’ve seen her collecting… Listen, Liz, just because someone has seen the light doesn’t make a lick of difference of what they did earlier.”

Elizabeth scrunched up her nose. She didn’t like that. Not a bit. She felt better about not telling him the truth.

The radio loudly whirled to life. Excitedly, Jack jumped up, “Tenenbaum?”

“There you are!” The voice on the other end was filled with relief, “What happened? What did Fontaine do to you?”

“Um… he blocked your signal.”

She exhaled, “Of course, he did.”

“But Tenenbaum, I found people that will help us.”

“... Did you?”

“Yes, Elizabeth and Atlas.”

Atlas heaved a sigh at Tenenbaum’s silence, “I’m sensing a pattern here.”

Elizabeth squirmed in her spot, twirling the thimble on her pinkie.

“They are with you?” Tenenbaum’s voice crackled over the radio.

“Right now, standing in front of me.”

“Jack, do me a favor, yes? Keep an eye on this Atlas.”

“I’m right here.” Atlas leaned over with a frown.

Jack hurriedly whispered into the radio, “I can, but why?”

“Ease my conscious. We will talk later when he is not around.” The radio switched off.

“Am I a ghost now?” 

“I-I don’t know what that was but… at least she didn’t want me to kill you?”

Atlas huffed, “Always a plus.”

The tension was stifling. Elizabeth piped up nervously, “We should get going.”

Jack joined her, “Right.”  
With a deep seated from, Atlas moodily walked beside them and held quiet as they made their way down to the cold fisheries.

Ice had overtaken most of the walls and floor. Icicles hung slow with sharp edges, ready to scratch any skulls that cross behind them. Elizabeth was the most ill prepared for this temperature as she looked at the two men who wore long sleeved shirts. Heels weren’t the greatest thing for slick floors either. She rubbed her arms to keep her blood pumping and she slowed her speed not fall.

Jack looked to her when they came upon stairs and held out his hand. “So you don’t fall.”

Elizabeth smiled a little and accepted his hand, “I feel like this is counterintuitive. If I fall, I’m going to bring you down with me.”

Atlas at first followed beside them and watched the two carefully make their way down. He could tell neither of them had trekked on ice before with their wide steps but he kept that information to himself. On the fourth step, Jack lost his footing and nearly brought Elizabeth along with him down the rest of the flight if Atlas didn’t grab her by the waist. 

“Are you alright?!”

Jack groaned from the floor, “My ass is wet and I think my tailbone is broken but I’ll live.”

Atlas smirked. “And you weren’t the one wearing heels.”

Jack gave a breathless giggle, “… Elizabeth? You ok?”

“Yes. Thank you, Atlas. Maybe you should have been the one wearing heels, Jack.”

“I don’t think they make any my size.”

“Here, I’ll help you down.” Atlas took Jack’s role of slowly guiding Elizabeth down the stairs. Elizabeth followed his gait, bending over slightly so that her weight was over her feet and taking baby steps across each step.

On the last step, Atlas stepped down first then took Elizabeth by both arms and helped her down. He did not let go until she was standing still.

“Can you get up, boyo? We got another flight to go down.”

Jack tried to sit up but pain stabbed him so hard that he violently flinched.

“Stay there, Liz,” Atlas skidded to his side. “Roll onto your stomach-- there’s you go.”

He lent an arm as Jack hoisted himself up. He could not help smile as he heard quiet profanities in his ear.

“You’ll do fine.” He reached over and carefully brought Elizabeth to his free side, “Alright, kiddos, lean on ol’ Atlas here. We’ll get through here by the next century.”

Elizabeth let herself laugh, since this was probably one of the few chances she would get to.

They continued steadily, baby step by baby step down the flight. Atlas was very warm to the touch as if he had been under a heater. It was nice compared to the harsh cold. She took a glance over at Jack who had his head pressed against Atlas’ shoulder. She could hear and see his fitful breathing.

“Fortunately for us, I know where to go from here. I used to--hhfn--don’t put your whole weight on me, Jack.”

“Sorry.”

“There’s a tunnel that has my hideout with a sub that can help us get out of here.”

Jack looked puzzled. “F-Fontaine said it was his hideout.”

“Fontaine is a lying sack of shite who steals everything. I ain’t surprised he’s taking all the credit I put into that place.”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak but said nothing.

~~~

Atlas was right about the tunnel. It was in plain sight as well.

“Well, it was usually hidden… Those splicing fucks must have found it. Argh, Jack, what did I say about your weight--Hey!”

As if his body fell limp, Jack collapsed onto the floor. His gaze firmly fixed on the middle of the room.

“Jack? Hey-- Oh, I know what’s going on.” He looked to Elizabeth, “I suppose you do too?”

“Not exactly…?”

“I thought you took plasmids as well?”

He spoke as if it was some sort of addictive drug-- which it was but somehow caught her off guard. “I do but I’m not sure what you mean?”

“... The ADAM, lass, depending on where it came from you can get memories from other people that have used it.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Atlas looked over her skeptically before returning his attention back to Jack, “How are you holding up?”

Panting, Jack swatted for grip. “They… they were talking about you. T-they said you’d fuck them if they quit-- what were they quitting..? Why would you--?”

Atlas looked just as confused as Jack. Elizabeth bit her lip. Fontaine and Atlas are connected. She was getting the sneaking suspicion that they were one in the same… just like Booker and Comstock. 

Constants and variables, she mused bitterly.

She studied Atlas as he helped Jack back onto his feet. She had improved on reading people, even if she didn’t understand their intentions. Atlas had a temper on him, but she could see his heart of gold. This realization had her thinking twice... however...

“You don’t remember anything?”

“I was working right alongside them. I don’t know why they would be worried about fucking them for quittin’.”

His words were hanging true by his tone. He seemed genuinely confused. This didn’t give her any comfort though. What universe were they even in…?

“Your nose is bleeding again, Atlas.”

~~~

The tunnel was not in good shape. If there wasn’t water flooding the floor where they stood, it was coming down from the ceiling.

It was already hard to run in heels nevertheless run in heels in shin high water and growing ever higher.

“Try to keep up, Liz!” Most of the tunnel could only hold the width of two people, so she let Atlas hoist Jack along while she lagged behind. Elizabeth had to catch herself multiple times before slipping from the wet steel underneath her. She thought about merely ditching the heels but that could be even worse if she did.

Crates were stacked and placed in sporadic places in the tunnels. The dead bodies and alcohol weren’t helping with the horrific smell either but Elizabeth pressed on.

“There! That’s the sub!” Atlas stopped and pointed. There was a hole in the wall and through it was the sight of a bathysphere. Elizabeth felt a weight ease off her shoulders. She could feel the sun on her face again.

“C’mon you two!” Atlas was grinning ear to ear as he urged them over to the rockslide. There was a space that an adult could crawl through. Elizabeth followed suit after Jack who slowly wormed his way through, making small noises of discomfort. Atlas got him back up when he was fully out.

Elizabeth felt a ping of gratitude when she saw them waiting for her. Atlas helped her onto her feet. Since the walking space was wider, the three of them walked together.

“When we get onto the surface, we’ll have a doc look at you. How does that sound, boyo?”

“Fantastic...”

Debris was scuttered around the hall as if an earthquake had struck. Atlas took the lead since he wasn’t injured or wearing heels and scaled up the beams. “So, after the doc, where do you two want to go?”

Jack hoisted himself up, “I-I have no idea. The only thing I can remember is my life back in Illinois with my mom and dad. I don’t remember too much of my life--hhng.”

“Haven’t seen much of the world then? I’ll show you around then. I think it’s best the three of us stick together. How’s that, Liz?”

“We can go to Paris.” Elizabeth suggested, climbing over the last of the beam with Atlas’ security.

“Paris, you say? Only there?”

“I mean, I’d love to go Egypt. Or Algeria. Or Brazil. Or--”

Atlas laughed heartily, “Ok, ok, you have a bucket list.”

“I’d like to see Ireland too.”

“Now that’s a place I know personally.” He said with a wink. 

The gate in front of them held a lock. Before Elizabeth stepped forward with her hairpin, Jack automatically whacked it with his wrench, breaking the lock immediately. She let out a quiet giggle. I guess she won’t be needing to lock pick with these two around.

Jack curiously and somewhat eagerly looked over at the control panel that sat in front of the glass viewing the submarine.

“What’s this for, Atlas?”

“To open the doors, we won’t be needing to use it--”

The door that led to the sub suddenly shut as sirens blazed overhead.

“No, no no no no....” Atlas’ eyes grew to the size of plates.

The radio on Jack’s hip hummed to life, “So, this is the Atlas I’ve been hearing so much about.”

Andrew Ryan.

Elizabeth may have been curious about the man to meet with him, but this was not how she envisioned it.

“You’ve certainly made that Brooklyn rat ansty with your presence that he’s forgotten about me. I’d like to know who you are myself, Atlas. Your motivations and intentions. There are two ways to deal with a mystery, uncover it or eliminate it.”

Hearing loud clicking above them, Elizabeth’s blood ran cold.

“Get the control panel!” Atlas shouted over the noise. Elizabeth reacted quickly and lunged for the button the panel. The door behind them opened and without further hesitation the three darted out of the room.

The two men reacted fast to the oncoming splicers. Elizabeth dashed to the nearest pole and hid to look for ammo or Eve or--. Fire spread in front of her eyes and she lurched back.

“Sorry!” Jack yelled, “Elizabeth! Get over here!”

They were already down the peer. She gave the peer one last glance and found EVE hypo lying beside her. Grabbing it, she rolled out of the way of the fire and hurried down the peer. She watched as Jack sent electricity out of his hand onto the splicer in front of her. 

“Jack! Catch!” She tossed the needle over the splicer’s head and Jack reached out to catch it.

“Thank you! Atlas-- help me. Hurry.”

Elizabeth ran past the splicer as it stumbled from being shocked. The next thing she knew Jack sent fire out of his hand and the spider splicer screamed as she burned to a crisp.

“Was that all of them?”

“Mostly but more’s a coming so let’s go to the sub--!” The three took off towards the sub. The world around them abruptly shook underneath them as the bathysphere exploded. Elizabeth was knocked into the wall while Jack and Atlas hit the floor. 

Elizabeth screamed as her heart sank into her stomach. No! NO! Not again! She didn’t want to be trapped again!!

Atlas was already on his feet, moving Jack with him. He grabbed Elizabeth by her forearm, pulling her as he ran.

“Atlas--!” Jack couldn’t get his next words out before Atlas yelled.

“I know!! Just get to Arcadia, dammit!”

Atlas sounded as if he was at the verge of sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to apologize for the really long wait I had to make you guys endure. This semester's been hell and I haven't had much time to plan out, but the semester is ending and I have a plan now with how I want to write this story. I can't guarantee it'll update on a weekly basis but it'll update soon, nonetheless. 12 chapters is a guess number, by the way, I'm not sure how long I want the chapters to be as of yet. Bare with me and thank you for your patience <3


	3. Act 2-2: I won't leave you twisting in the wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is to the people who commented on this fic that I had my finger on the delete key for a long loooong time.   
> Thank you for reviving that old flame my love for Bioshock kindled <3

The sound of Atlas’ fists striking the thick glass echoed loudly throughout the moving elevator, scaring the passerby fish. One, two, three… four… with the final hit, his head was pressed against the cold wall as he fell to his knees. 

Billie Holiday’s Night and Day accompanied his fitful gasping.

With her weary gaze directed to the metal floor, Elizabeth withdrew into the opposite corner of the elevator, resembling an abandoned doll. In an attempt of bravado, Jack stood erect and faced the door with his wrench in hand. Screaming, elevator shook to a halt. The metal maw gaped to unveil illustrious greenery beyond Jack’s comprehension. Slack jawed, his ready stance reduced to a slouch.

He had never seen so much life. Jack sputtered at the thought. Of course, he has, hasn’t he? He had lived in the states all his life, why did this surprise him so? He accepted the fact of the many hours he has spent below sea has made him irrational. For now, he dashed those worries aside.

To look behind him reconciled his fears. Atlas still laid out on the floor, life voided from his gaze. 

With a frown, Jack pressed, “There must be a second chance to leave, somehow. Right? Rapture is enormous! We just got to look around--!”

“Ain’t that just like Ryan...” Atlas moaned in exasperation. His voice croaked under the pressure, as if he had been weeping.

His eyes burned with hatred as they glared at the ceiling. Jack’s stomach grew hot, watching him.

“...Waits… until we’re almost there and then...” Atlas reaches out and makes a fist with his hand. His whispers slowly formed into an incandescent scream, “pulls the string… I’ll find that bastard… I’ll find him…. And I’ll tear his heart out.”

Though uncomfortably warm, Jack swallowed and steadied his tone, “Atlas.”

His head jerked towards him. His unblinking, blood red eyes caused Jack to instinctively lift his wrench. Atlas hissed, “Why aren’t you mad?”

“I’m furious… I don’t want to be here anymore and I don’t think lying down on the floor is going to help us leave.”

Immediately, Atlas sat up. “You are absolutely right.” He gathered himself and his bag, “C’mon, lass, we shouldn’t stay too long in one spot-- Liz?”

Jack studied Atlas’ fury evaporate at the sight of her helpless figure.

“How long has she been like that?” He whispered.

Jack flinched at the gentle tone. “I-I don’t know. What do we do?” 

“I’m thinking...” He drummed his fingers against the barrel of his shotgun. Occasionally, he switched from Elizabeth to Arcadia, to and fro.

“Should we sit beside her?” Jack inquired spontaneously to which taken Atlas aback. He cleared his throat. “Or maybe you should? I think you’d be better that this than me. I’ll stay by the door if anyone comes by.”

Atlas graced him a tired smile that he absentmindedly returned, “You really think so?”

“You’ve been here longer than us. I think you have a better say.”

After Atlas set bag of supplies beside him, he stepped toward Elizabeth and sat a foot alongside her. He spoke softly, as if not to disturb a sleeping babe, “Elizabeth?”

Thankfully, her head moved in his direction.

“May I put an arm around you?”

Her reply was delayed for a minute but she nodded her head.

Atlas scooched over and put an arm over her shoulders. “I want to listen real close, alright? I want you to hold onto these words.” His face scrunched up. “Change… Change is inevitable and it can be out of our control. That is the hardest thing to accept, but do you know what we can do about it? We can change too. We ain’t dead yet, so, we can’t quit. Yeah?”  
He received a hum that time. “Right. Now, I’m not tell you you can’t be upset about this. I’m still mad as hell about it, but what I need you to do, is to know how your feeling right now for a few minutes. Let it all out so you can travel on that road to feeling better again. Can you do that? Would you like me to stay right here?” He snickered at her quickly bobbing her head and patted her arm. “Alright, Liz.”

Slyly, Jack kept an eye over his shoulder during Atlas’ pep talk as he stood guard. He spoke so sweet that it was distracting. It reminded him of how Tenenbaum’s cadance. The two shared an odd clarity he wished to marry and be clothed by.

Snap

His body jerked at the sound. Jack readied his shotgun. With wide eyes, he looked around but everything was still.

“Goddammit...” He heard Atlas swore. “Boyo, what’s out there might be Houdini Splicers… Those bastards become invisible--”

“Invisible!?”

“Easy, just keep your ears open.”

Jack slowed his breathing to keep his heartbeat low. The men took pause until a definite yet distant voice fought through the closed doors. “Hey…! Help!” It was the voice of a scared man. His tone did not sound slurred like a splicer. Determined, Jack aimed for the entrance of Arcadia, when Atlas grabbed and yanked him back. 

“Oi! What do you think you’re doing?!” 

“There’s someone out there, Atlas!”

Atlas frowned, his eyebrows low, “Were you born yesterday?”

Pouting, Jack opened his mouth as if to tell him off but his confidence waned while his thoughts betrayed him. “I was born in the states…?”

“That didn’t sound reassuring.”

“I just didn’t expect to be asked a weird question.”

“Weird question? I was calling you naive.” Atlas eyed him from his head to his shoes. “Knew something about you seemed off since we met.” 

“W-what? Because of the whole Fountaine thing?”

“What state?”

“Uh-- Illinois. I lived on a farm with my folks.”

“Were you drafted in US military? Navy?”

“No...?”

“No? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re handling a gun like you were trained.”

Jack briefly gazed down at his posture… A balanced form, shotgun ready to aim, back hunched as if ready for recoil. Sheepish, yet courageous from boiling anger, Jack rebuttled, “You talking from experience?”

“From watching people. You didn’t answer the question, boyo.”

“Quit calling me that. And no. I wasn’t a soldier. Fontaine said I was a natural at shooting.”

His flushed bright red then proceeded to drain of all color. He leaned back. “Down here is when you first _touched_ a gun?!”

“Yes! Where would I even touch a gun?!”

“C’mon, kid, your dad had to have own a gun if you lived on a farm.”

“W-well, maybe he didn’t like violence.”

“Maybe? What does that mean?”

“Because I don’t fucking know!!” He caught sight of Elizabeth looking straight at him with her lips tightly pursed. Jack lowered his voice. “I don’t have the greatest memory, alright? I don’t remember much of my childhood.”

Odd silence put down its foot to intervene their argument. Atlas and his cocked brow set a fire within his chest. Jack snarled, ”What about you?”

His jaw snapped shut and he spoke through his teeth, “... What _about_ me?”

“Why do you think I’m lying? Why would I? I’m telling you all I know. So what about you? Is that what you’re doing to us? Are you using us? Why else would you go off about Fontaine?”

He let out a breath of air that mimicked a mirthless chuckle. “Jack, if that were the case, I’d be a dead man on that sub. Did I do that?”

“N-no, you kept me standing.” Jack briefly glimpsed at his now bandaged leg courtesy of Elizabeth. “You got us this far… You really helped us out.”

“I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry. I’ll stop calling you boyo.”

“No! No, I got really heated there. You can still call me that if you want…?” Atlas’s warm face gave Jack chills. “The whole--ah, imposter, you know, with Peaches. What do you think about it all?”

“Well, Last time I checked I was the only Atlas here.” He sighed through his nose, “ Been teased about it for years in Primary and Secondary School. ‘Atlas, what kind of name is that?’. ‘That has to be fake, come off it.’ Children can be harsh.” 

Jack held the shotgun closer to his chest as if to make himself smaller, “I’m sorry about that.”

“Hey, I was almost named Darcy, that would have been worse.”

“You don’t look like a Darcy.” Elizabeth spoke softly, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Exactly!” Atlas threw his hands up. To see her off of the floor and heading their way gave the two ease. “You hanging in there?”

“I think so. I needed a moment, like you said.”

“Splendid. Now...” Atlas adapted a rough appearance and hauled his bag over his shoulder. “You two ready to face what Rapture has to offer?”

 

~~~

Laughter rung through their ears the moment the gates to the station slammed shut. Gas seeped into their lungs as Fontaine screamed, “Good ol’ Mr. Ryan’s doing all of my dirty work for me! After all these years, we finally have a common goal.”  
Atlas firmly took hold on Jack and Elizabeth’s arms and had them sprint towards the left where a undisturbed door lay. It separated them from Arcadia, therefore the oxygen was nontoxic. The three crumbled onto the floor.

The menacing voice of Andrew Ryan billowed out from the speakers. “Parasites like you easily forget words that were said beforehand. Rapture, is for the people. You parasites found a way through the smallest cracks of my city. A crime that can only be sentenced by death alone. While I was on the surface, I bought a forest, but it was not long until the Parasites swarmed in and pounced with their own visions of a public park, for God owned the land and not myself. After losing my case with Congress, I burnt that forest to the ground. God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia; I did. And with seeds, come weeds, and they must be plucked. As I will do with each of you.”

“Yous got the words of bastardized poet, Russki. Shame, that you running your mouth does a better job than you was running Rapture.”

“I’m going to kill them… Both of them with my own hands.” Atlas snarled through desperate wheezes.

“My trees! Oh! Oh my poor trees…” A woman’s static shrill interrupted Atlas’ moaning. “I don’t care who Ryan is after, nothing is worth killing my trees…!” 

Swaying as she stood, Elizabeth slinked to the end of the hall. Three TVs lined the doorframe. The screens showed a lady with tightly bunned hair and formal attire accompanied with puffy shoulder pads. When the woman met Elizabeth, she found her nose damp with blood. 

“Oh no… how is she not deranged...?” Elizabeth cleared her throat before speaking, “Um, hello? Is there anyway to help you, Miss?”

The doctor narrowed her eyes and waved offhandedly. “Hm, yes. Rosa Gallica is what I need. You can find them in the grotto.”

 

Her mind clicked. Elizabeth put her fist into her palm. “Of course! You’re planning to add distilled water, a bit of chlorophyll, and enzymes from honey bees to suffocate the gas by putting the formula through the sprinklers!”

She look to Elizabeth, her expression had not changed but her eyes grew in wonder. “I won’t ask how you know that just yet. You’re wasting time explaining when you could be looking what I need.”

“I-I know how to get the flower faster than going back to the grotto.”

The eyes of the doctor, Jack, and Atlas burned into her while she strained a tear in reality and drew out deep pinkish flower.

Finally, the doctor’s face shifted; however, the shock of her power lasted for a moment. Her expression waned back to its original stone. “Don’t just stand there, put it in the Pneumo!”

Wincing, Elizabeth sought around briefly before placing the rose into the machine under one of the TVs.

“Perfect...” Her words rode on the exhalation, “I’m letting you in…! Come up to my office. I think I have a place for you here.”

“I don’t like the sound of that… I don’t like any of this...”

Atlas patted her shoulder, “That’s old betty, Langford for ya. An okay sort, but not above doing a dirty job for a dollar. I didn’t know you were a botanist, Liz?”

“I’m… not.” His nose dripped with blood. No, no, no, no! “I’ve done a lot of reading.”

“So I’ve seen. You’ve become a great team member. Even helping the lad with them Lil Sisters”  
“No thanks to you.”

Atlas coughed, “Boyo! What the hold up? Jack?”

Upon turning around, Jack appeared as if struck by lightning. The nose he wore gushed with blood that his hands and mouth became drenched. “We can’t. We can’t go in there. She’ll die. She’ll die if we go in there.”

Slowly, Elizabeth approached him. “J-Jack. Jack, I need you to start taking deep breaths, okay? I’ll breathe with you.” While guiding him, Elizabeth opened the supply satchel and grabbed the clothes. Gently dabbing his nose, she continued in a soft tone, “you’re doing good. I’m… not sure what you saw… Think of it as an hallucination.”

“I saw her! Ryan filled her room with gas! She wrote a code on the widow… If we step in there, she’ll die!!”

“What was the code?”

“Atlas, please, not now. Listen to me, Jack, what you saw, it is possible that it may or may not happen. Don’t get confused of where you are. Remember that this plane is where you are. You exist here.” And none of this is supposed to happen, Elizabeth finished. Doctor Langford is supposed to be dead. You are supposed to be dead, Jack. You had to die on that sub in this timeline and I messed it up.

Atlas squinted hard at her. “That Tear plasmid of yours. Don’t tell me that has a catastrophic effect?”

“I can’t be sure. Maybe, it’s an extreme ADAM side effect. Maybe, it’s from all the plasmids he’s drugged himself with.”

“... You’ve got a point there.” He threatened a finger close to her face. “But don’t think I’m not worried or brushing this aside, lass. I’m going to figure you out.”

“And then what? If you think there is something to get out of me, then what is there for you to gain?”

“I see the way you look at me whenever that Fontaine fuck is even mentioned. Get this straight in your head, Fontaine and me have no relation, Liz. What doesn’t help us is that you seem to know what’s happening here and all I want to know is why. Why you can’t offer any explanation.”

Elizabeth gave pause. Her eyelids blinked heavily from stress. She took the bloody cloth and tossed it aside. “Atlas. Being alive, seeing the world, seeing things you’d never see in one lifetime, you learn quick that even with explanations, many things can never be understood.”

“Elizabeth,” Jack whined, “I don’t like it.”

“It’s something that can be used to, like killing people.” She added, gruffly before marching through the office.

Jack and Atlas’ footsteps trialed behind her until entering the door to Langford’s room. She stood there, vibrating to and fro. Langford’s form appeared with the flower and vial in her hand to examine, then to the machine under the window of the station entrance, then to the safe in the back corner.

“What the fuck?” Atlas said.

“The door is open. Ryan is supposed have to closed her off by now,” Jack muttered, unaware of the current situation. Timidly, he crossed the threshold and stood at the table where Langford eventually dissipated. Jack did not move, he looked on as if the doctor was still there.

“What is it, boy? Have you gotten the honey bee spit yet?” Langford’s voice challenged like an echo through a tunnel.

“No, not yet. Are you dead? Did Ryan kill you?”

“Jack, don’t ask that…!” Elizabeth dashed over to grab him.

“We’re under the ocean in a city made by that mad man. We are all dead. Ah! You, girl. I need you to do that again.” 

“Oh, no, she is _not_ doing that.” Atlas chimed in, “her using that plasmid is putting us into enough trouble as is.”

“She put poisonous gas on my beloved trees?”

“No. What I mea--”

“Precious oxygen flutters away just by us talking. Do it.”

Elizabeth broke off from Atlas’ grasp and faced the table. After a deep breath, she forced open another tear upon the table, where gallons distilled water, a vile of colorform, and a jar of spit lay.

“Perfect. Perfect!” One by one the items vanished and the machine behind her hummed to life. Transparent fades of Langford reached into the U-Vent and brought out vile filled with green liquid. Her voice reverberated once more, dripped with delight. “Lazarus Factor. Isn’t it gorgeous?” 

“Lazarus...?” In tone of the aged voxophone, Elizbeth heard Rosalind’s words as if she was speaking within her mind.

_Our current state of being -- or lack thereof -- has left my brother... unfulfilled. The biological urge to leave one's mark is strong. And it is not an impossibility. We could instantiate ourselves back in Columbia. Return to an old life, for the possibility of creating new. But... we died in that world. Returning would mean giving up part of us. Ourselves. We'd become flesh and all that it is heir to. The mysteries of the universe would become, once again, mysteries._

_Yet, **we are not dead.**_

While true, Elizabeth knew different combinations of antiposions. She knew more than forging for ammo and lockpicking, however, this doctor found in those exact chemicals: a medicine of Immortality. The Lazarus Project was not just to bring back the dead, it was to immortalize the risen dead… A project that was left to become dust, and now Langford is using this discovering just for her trees. Relieved, Elizabeth put a hand to her heart that this knowledge will never leave the ocean floor.

Langford reappeared at the large machine and inserted the vile into the system. Whirling to life, the liquid rushed through the drains and the drains gave a testy groan in response. They watched how the sprinklers sparked and spun out the green fluid until the gas slowly dissipated.  
Calm in her voice somehow created less of an obnoxious echo in the room. “It is good to _see_ that my trees will continue to thrive. You would have been a great asset. Where have you been before now?”

Elizabeth realized she was being asked the question. “Oh, well. I only just arrived.”

“After New Years? It indeed was havoc.”

“New Years!” Atlas coughed. He searched around for Langford to find her in a new system jump. She sat at her desk, she fiddled at the table, and she paced around with an audio dairy in her hand. Her form reached instability and shook with each breath she inhaled. Rushing over to one spot after another, Atlas’ face grew red out of frustration. “When was that?! What year?!”

“The year after you died, Atlas.” She cooed.

He stumbled into the table, knocking a flamethrower off the side. “That… No, that can’t be right! I’m standing right here!”

“We never did see your body. Your company exploded. Any smart, quiet person suspected Ryan of murder. You were cheating the competition. Therefore, I can only conclude that you cheated your death, coming back to reap what Mr. Ryan has sewn.”

Slamming his hands, he yelled, “You’re not makin’ sense, betty, but I’m telling you. I’m NOT that Atlas!”

Langford physically turned towards him, only a foot away from his person. “Don’t go trying to prove to me about it. You’re attempting to convince thin air.” Upon achieving more matter, her body wavered and warped. Atlas startled back as Langford drew closer and closer until Atlas backed into a wall. Her words boomed and bounced to each wall of the room, “Now leave me be. I have work that must be started as do you. Killing Ryan may be easy, but seeing as you are a dead man walking. The moment you step into the room is the moment when you deduce which one of you will drop dead first before following shortly behind.”

The doctor sharply returned to her previous pattern, acknowledging only the chosen objects in the room.

Atlas swallowed his spit as well as his pride and eased himself from the wall. Wringing his throat, he sputtered, “let’s go. We’ll cut through Fort Frolic. From there, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to Ryan’s office.”

“Atlas,” Jack offered, “let me kill him. Don’t even take a step into his office. I don’t want you dead. I really don’t. I want to understand this as much as you do.”

His tired gaze laid upon him so sullenly. He skipped to Elizabeth then to the door. “Look… We’ll… we will… JackHnn... Elizabeth.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me--us. Tell us. What do you think we should do?”

“Once we get inside the bathysphere, we stay there and we sleep.”

“Sleep sounds amazing.” Jack added, his words slurred together.

“Aye. Let’s sail far away from here.” Atlas’ smile left a bittersweet taste on her tongue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need every one of you to imagine that after Atlas said "Fontaine and me have no relation, Liz." Imagine imagine Elizabeth giving him that dead as dead stare she gave Booker when he said that a city under the ocean is ridiculous, Thank you.
> 
> I hope you're excited about Fort Frolic as I am.


	4. Act 2-3: She blinded me with tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized very quickly that Fort Frolic is a bit long in the tooth so I decided to /splice/ it up Now I can be more comfortable with the writing process. This is my favorite part of the game and is one of the extreme plot points in this story; I want to show it in the best way that I can!

“Atlas? Can I ask a personal question?” Jack piped up the moment silence reintroduced itself to the metal tub rhythmically bobbing up and down at the splicerless station of Arcadia.

“You know, I always seem to get those types of questions.” Atlas nudged Jack under the ribs. “I’m kidding ya, go on.”

“What was your life like before Rapture?” Jack blushed at his cautious glance. He pressed on, sheepishly, “I--we just, you know--”

Atlas patted his back, gently. “I’m not fussin’ at you. There’s just not much for me to say. Don’t remember a whole lot of my youth, I think part of it is from me blacking it out. My parents were nice, but we were Jewish. Despite everything you may hear about Ireland, which I ain’t sure is a whole lot but, it was no The Quiet Man.”

Elizabeth bit her lip. “That must have been terrible...”

“Yeah, we couldn’t get out of Europe or our house. Mos’ of Ireland hails Catholicism, so they didn’t turn a blind eye for us. They made us fairly aware we were not going to make it out of that war alive. “Jews go to hell”, “superior religion”, all that guff. Like we all forgot we were pagans beforehand. Religious scriptures written, rewritten, and translated thousands of years ago shouldn’t blind a man from common sense of what’s goin’ on nowadays.”

“I can attest to that...”

“What was that, Liz?”

“Nothing, keep going.”

Atlas shrugged. “Not much else to it. I mean, when I heard about Rapture. Like anyone I was ecstatic, I wanted to be far away from where I called home. I had a, um… friend, we were workmates. He got there because our boss got invited and then he invited me personally. He frolicked away and I haven’t seen him since Rapture fell apart.”

“Were you married?” Jack pointed to his engagement ring.

“... No. This is just an ornament.”

Elizabeth poised straighter as she turned to him. An engagement ring is an ornament to you? She wanted to ask, but Atlas fought her to the tongue.

“You sound like you had a similar experience, Lizzie.” Her newfound innocent nickname was tainted with gross intrigue.

“Not entirely.” She fought her habit of hesitating. “I was sheltered under lock and key by a man who I never considered to be my father. I was always watched by his… people so that I was not prematurely leaving. The world around me… was very much like yours, Atlas. Blind. And somehow, I had no idea. When I got out, I was innocent and so certain that I could be free. Now I'm wiser and unsure that this freedom everyone preaches may be another social construct. I know it was out of my control but when it came down to it, when I finally took that metaphorical wheel from him. I almost became him, yet I don’t regret what I’ve done.”

“Holy shit, you killed him?” Jack’s words grew softer as he spoke, “what else did he do?”

“I didn’t… necessary. I did put him in situations where he did die--I’m not trying to defend myself. I know my hands aren’t clean. He tried to kill the man who was stole me from my room. Arson, theft, treason, manipulating, going against nature itself… He was always trying to grab at straws. He became afraid of me and ran. If he stayed alive, I shudder to think of what he could do.”

“Is that why you’re down here?” Atlas prodded, leaning slightly. “As I recall you said you had a _client_ here, Lizzie. When we first met.”

Jack darted his gaze between the two, as if grabbing for the intent behind Atlas’ question. “You had a client, Elizabeth? Were you an agent?”

“More or less… You’re right. That was him. Why do you think I wanted to save Sally?”

“Sally?”

“That Big Daddy chasing you then. You must have enraged it to kill your old man. That being said, my question is how were you not dead when I arrived?”

Elizabeth stammered to speak, “I don’t know. Maybe, I should have...”

Jack extended an arm to her but Atlas’ frantic movements swatted his gesture aside.

“Maybe?! It’s ideal! You had nothing!! You were running in circles!”

She stood, her heels _clank_ ed and vibrated throughout the metal tub. “I’m alive! Because of you!! Because we trusted each other!”

“These Tears, Liz. They brought us here. Fontaine is dead, I’m Atlas, and Langford over there is television static! Nothing here adds up!! Surely, you know what these bloody noses are for too? But I wouldn’t understand, huh? Ain’t that right? Kid, I am trying to like you but this ain’t helping! I know you’re trying to do this right thin--”

“Is that why you’re down here?” Atlas prodded, leaning slightly. “As I recall you said you had a _client_ here, Lizzie. When we first met.”

Jack darted his gaze between the two, as if grabbing for the intent behind Atlas’ question. “You had a client, Elizabeth? Were you an agent?”

Elizabeth pressed a hand to her stomach, blinking wildly. She felt nauseating warm all the sudden. “More or less…? You’re right. That was him. Why do you think I wanted to save Sally...?”

“Sally?”

“That Big Daddy chasing you then. You must have enraged it to kill your old man...” Atlas stopped, rubbing his face. He strained to speak. “What the hell…? Didn’t we just say this?”

“No?” Jack began reaching into the supply bag. “You two don’t look so good. Was it you, Elizabeth, that picked up some medicine?”

“I-... yes, I did.” 

“Ok ok, I’ll-- I’ll try to find some uh ahh water juice. Bottled water. Be read--stay here.” Jack cursed at himself as he exited the bathysphere. Atlas’ gaze trailed after him.

Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “Atlas… do you-- hear or saw anything?”

“I see him.”

“Did you see anything when when… oohh...” As if topheavy, her buzzing head collided with the cushioned bench. Hoping to tune out the now unsavory feeling of bobbing along the waves, she held her eyes shut.

“I feel like I got my head bashed in with a metal pipe.” Atlas said, distantly.

Elizabeth gave herself a minute or so for the nausea to pass before speaking, “I could see us.”

**“Maybe?! It’s ideal! You had nothing!! You were running in circles!”**

“We were arguing.”  
**She stood, her heels _clank_ ed and vibrated throughout the metal tub. “I’m alive! Because of you!! Because we trusted each other! And we keep getting into these arguments because of you cannot accept what I say for an answer. I am sick of it!”**

“I was telling you how sick I was of you accusing me for taking us here… There was a rupture.” Because of me. “Your head hit… hnnh, hit the floor.”

**| moved and groaned like a wounded wolf, “Jesus Christ...”**

“Jack’s shoulder popped out of its socket.”

**| cradled his shoulder, sucking air through his teeth. | broke herself out of her spite and careful guided | to his feet. “I didn’t mean to pull you into this, Jack--!”**

**“Nng, I think it’s just out of my socket. I’ll be okay.” | smiled through worry. “Uh, are you? Because I have no idea what that was all about.”**

**“Sorry, we’ll give you a better explanation later. For now, we’re all at fault here, not you. You’ve done nothing wrong. Right, | ?”**

Elizabeth hiccuped and swallowed, “You-- like him, hm?”

“He’s a right little dinger, that’s for sure.”

Elizabeth truly did not know what Atlas said and to ask him would send her into a stupor from strain. 

“How you holdin’ up?

She gave a short groan.

“Yeh, you look like death, Liz. Try to sleep. Jack’ll come back...”

Indeed, Elizabeth woke up to Jack positioning her upright with a lovely sweet smile on his lips. Although through her fuzzled vision, she could only make out shapes and code that formed him. His transparent heat from his hand left her with an unfamiliar feeling of a parental, unconditional love. The words translocated from his mouth into text she read. _Drink this._

She obeyed. Water cleansed her throat and soothed her haggard mind. The bread he offered tasted on the verge of turning stale but she let herself eat what she could.

As the world repaired itself, she watched Jack move onto Atlas. Tenderly touching his face to stir him awake, Jack pressed himself beside him and fed him the repeated text. When after Jack considered his work done, he put an arm around Atlas and carefully moved him next to Elizabeth’s spot. Text would appear and vanish. _There we go. Take it easy. It’s ok. It’s ok._ While Atlas’ would vomit unreadable scribbles in the stagnant air.

Jack waltzed over to the door and shut it tight and stared. He appeared to be waiting for something. Although quenched, she could not tolerate speaking, as if a gag was choking her throat when she tried. Shrinking away, he met with the floor with a huff. I’m sorry for taking so long, came his words. I had some run-ins… Fontaine was talking to me. 

Atlas’ incoherent lines were loud and mangled.

He was just talking to me like nothing was wrong, back to square one, he said. Talking all nice to me, saying I’m doing good. He wants me to kill Ryan. I wants me to do things I can’t say. Even though I covered my ears I could still him say it. Let’s keep this to _yerselves_. 

The scribbles created a word Elizabeth recognized through the jagged breaks. Jack, Atlas said.

Are we doing the right thing? Elizabeth too found no sound in her voice. The text of her words did not pour out from her lips. With this audible silence, she began to wonder if she _did_ say anything.

We have to be. She squinted at Atlas’ words. I can’t think of another way. We get Ryan. We get out. 

What about the phrase, Atlas? Elizabeth countered.

We can get around it. Just be mindful. No one else knows about it but us.

And Fontaine. Jack’s words were tiny in comparison.

I’ll make sure he stays down here. Neither of you worry about that.

It sounds like that’s what he wants… Fontaine. Elizabeth continued for Jack.

I don’t care what he wants. He’s not gonna get it. The only thing he’ll want is his lungs full of air when I’m done with him. I won’t let him hurt any of us. Jack. Whatever ‘would you kindly’ spell he’s put on ya, I’m breaking them… We can’t have any more secrecy here. What did he say, Jack.

Frantically, Jack put a hand to his mouth and shook his head.

“Would you kindly tell us what that son of a bitch said?” Atlas’ voice sent chills up her spine. She watched his nose ooze streams of blood that lined his lips in horror.

Suddenly, Jack’s body slacked as the color drained from his eyes. “... You only do this when the time is right, kid, and you’ll know it in ya gut. After all, it’s best to kill the young man before he becomes a soviet. You take that Atlas’ tongue and pull until there ain’t no skin left. When ya done, grab the girl and bring ‘er ‘ere, I’ll make sure she stays quiet. On top of that, would you kindly not parade this to your colleagues whose ‘bout to get jumped by splicers? You’re a real pal.” The moment Jack finished, he sharply exhaled as if attempting to dry heave.

“Jesus--!” Hurriedly, Atlas gathered him in his arms and brought him in between himself and Elizabeth. “Fuck, I’m so sorry, Jack...”

Too exhausted to be furious, Elizabeth breathlessly waded, “Why...?”

“I can’t let him get further ahead than us, Liz. We can’t leave Jack by himself either. Who know what that bastard will say to him? Goddammit. Jack, I’m so so sorry.”

Jack let himself be held as he wheezed, cradling his stomach.

Elizabeth stroked his back. “He forgives you… Atlas? You want answers, I get that but are you--”

“I won’t be makin’ a habit of this, no. God no. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry to both of you. I know I know better, I can’t let that bastard use him like this.”

She took a moment to collect herself. “Thank you for apologizing.” But I don’t forgive you. “I’ll give you another chance.”

“Thank you, Elizabeth. I really appreciate that.”

“I know you want to do the right thing, but your way of going about it is… questionable. So I’ll make an attempt to understand where you’re coming from.”

“You’re a…. Really… You’re great. Thank you. Thank you.”

No. I’m not. “You’re welcome… Atlas?”

“Yea?” He yawned.

“I’m sorry too.”

 

 

 

“I trust ya, Liz.”

Clambering through the rails, the bathysphere grimaced and grinded to a halt at the station. Upon contact, the circular door swung out. Under Atlas’ arms, Jack’s sleeping body jerked and gathered onto his feet. He blinked wildly and he raised his wrench. Slowly, he came to yet his hand hungered in the air. Elizabeth’s head was nestled on Jack’s shoulder now gone met the seat cushion and shot her awake and drowsy. 

“Jack?” She mumbled, wiping her face.

“I thought I--... Splicers an… dads.. Bath-- That’s… Yeah.” Jack waved the wrench at the roof of the bathysphere. “Yeah. Yeah?”

“... Jack, are you sleepwalking?”

“Iii feel awake?” He blinked hard and rolled his shoulders.

Atlas groaned as he stretched. “Awh…. Fuck.”

“What--?”

“Fort Frolic.” He gave another pained grunt when he pushed himself out of his corner. “Alright, Hephaestus is one more bathysphere away, so we’ll need more supplies. I’ll leave you two in charge of that. I’m scouting ahead.” He snatched the machine gun from their satchel and set off down the hall.

Jack yelled after him, “‘Ey! If you leave without us, I’m looting your corpse!”

“Rapture’s made ya a cold hearted man, boyo. Ain’t goin’ to get ya any dates!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to give you some company with an ignited splicer.” 

“That’s my Jack!”

Elizabeth coughed from embarrassment when she saw Jack’s wide smile. “Oh, you two were teasing.”

“Shit-- I didn’t think! I’m s...”

“No, no, I’m just talking to myself. I-I get it. Grounding.”

“Grounding?”

“Staying sane.”

Jack perked up. “Oh, yes. Uh, you got the money?”

She patted her dress pocket that clinged in reply.

“Let’s shop til we drop.”

Elizabeth forced a smile. “Atlas is rubbing off on you.”

“I hope not. I can’t do an irish accent.”

“Threes equal trees.” She continued, avoiding Hs, “Throughout the thicket of trees did Thoreau thrive through.”

He stifled his laugh too late. “Wow… I kind of want him to say that...”

“He’d hate you.” Elizabeth warned, goodnaturedly.

“Yeah, probably.”

~~~

As they passed through the doorway to the station to Hephaestus, Jack fled from her side towards Atlas who was waiting by the stairs. “Atlas! Atlas! Throughout the--”

Water gurgled and sprayed onto the pavement as the bathysphere sunk. A splicer mask rose from its place, curtains draped along the widows as if to block out natural light, music dripped with dramatic poise and nude statues that spun in tune did a voice finally unveiled out of the dark. “Atlas… Ryan... Atlas… Ryan… duh duh duh, duh duh, duh, dunhg.”

Ice ran throughout her skin to create icicles where her fingertips lay. Elizabeth held her chest. “No, no...”

“The artist has a duty to seduce the ear and delight the spirit… My, how your little story does seduce me, Songbird.”

Her gaze locked with Atlas’ stone eyes that were filled with affirmation. His voice although quiet seeped into her ears, his words echoed and grew in volume within her head. “Your Cohen’s ‘Songbird’…?”

Sander Cohen’s closing line touched upon deaf ears. Hand to her mouth, Elizabeth rushed out of the station before she gave Atlas the chance to pounce.

“Sander FUCKING Cohen?! How could I forget he’s your bloody boss!? Elizabeth! You trusted this muppet?!!”

Weary, Jack kept behind Atlas with his hands out to grab him just in case as they confronted Elizabeth towards the entrance of Fort Frolic.

“It was a symbiotic relationship. I didn’t know he’d know me here!” Elizabeth cried. Her nails clawed into the fabric sleeves.

With that, Atlas’ rage vanished. “You didn’t… know?”

“Jack--Atlas, this is wrong. Variables out of hand, I know it. I really messed up. I-I had no idea the doors could…!” She sputtered for air. Putting her arms out, she slowed down to be forcefully present. After a moment, she turned to neighboring tourist shop. “I need to prove myself wrong.”

She did not wait for confirmation. Immediately, she ripped a tear over the store to a world full of life and vibrant color. Customers froliking and gossiping, laughter set the pinicle of over-stimulating joy Ryan wished his city provided. It set her gut aflame.

“Rapture, after the fall… The same time as us. It’s just as sordid and disgusting. There’s no saving grace, nothing is sacred. It’s constant is to fall no matter how many times it rises.” The tear closed as she faced her company. “You’re right, Atlas. My tears can cause chaos, but it’s the place that introduces the effect.” 

Jack scratched at his elbow. “So… if… anyone after Ryan tries to form Rapture, it’ll just fall again?”

“Correct. People aren’t meant to create paradises. This I’ve already learned.” Her voice croaked by the end. “Ahm, I can’t take us to another Rapture that can give us a better getaway. Rapture was made to have a burial at sea. Sander Cohen… I don’t know what he’s going to do to me or you two, since he is...”

“A lunatic?” Atlas finished.

“... Himself. We have to abide with whatever he wants us to do. Don’t make him angry. Atlas.”

He wisely decided to just nod.

“Promise me, you two will be careful.”

Talking at once from growing concern, Jack and Atlas were quickly silenced until Atlas gave him distraught motions by rolling his wrist for Jack to speak first as he set his gaze to the wall. “I-I’ve only heard him talk like a creepy predator for like a minute. I am NOT letting him get near you.”

“He’s not a… Sander Cohen is,” Elizabeth picked any nice words in her dictionary on the off chance the man himself was eavesdropping, “artistically inclined.”

Atlas’ jaw clenched. “That’s sugarcoating to a high degree. He’s a worse case than anyone else I’ve seen in my life and I’ve seen some… Both of you are stayin’ behind me in case I do anything stupid. But he does anything, he’ll become the first human atom bomb.”

“Ooohh, I can smell viburnum in that one.” Cohen’s intrigue dripped through the radio. “Is that the little Atlas wannabe I’ve heard so much about?”

“Yeah and what do you want?!”

“Atlas!”

“I’ve waited so long for you to arrive. My Songbird has returned to her nest and brought back _two_ delicious morsels. It is impolite to keep a host if you must know. Don’t worry, I’ll send you to Ryan, but first you must be part of my masterpiece. Come! Come in--!”  
In the midst of his flair, the entrance to Fort Frolic busted open like a shaken wine bottle. Without a word, Jack advanced through the threshold into the pitch black room.

Atlas shouted, “Boyo--Hey! Hey!!” Elizabeth willingly grabbed Atlas’ hand and ran with him after Jack.

“WELCOME-- TO -- _FORT FROLIC!!!_ ”

 _ **BANG**_ cried the big doors as they closed.

Spotlights blinded them. One after another sparks ignited upon neon signs. Enormous groans emitted from shifting rusted pipes that finally sucked in that breathe of air. It reeked of ungracefully aged ale and bad decisions, which set Atlas reeling to his knees with a shrill.

Jack hurriedly swept him up. “Atlas! You alright?!”

He gagged. Multiple Jacks danced around him. “Christ, how are none of ya breathing this…?”

“Breathing what? I-I have more water? Your nose isn’t bleeding-- I don’t not sure you’re going through.”

“What the fuck are you saying?!”

“I--sit down! Elizabeth, where are-- you…?” Now most of Fort Frolic was still draped in dim lighting, Jack scrambled in effort to ensure that Elizabeth was _somewhere_ “Elizabeth!!” Jack called out in growing terror, “Lizzie?!”

If his head wasn’t mush already, Atlas would have hit it against the floor. “Goddammit, Cohen! Where is she?!!”

“Tsk, tsk, little moths… how bitchy you are when your light vanishes. I won’t keep her from you for long, if you dilly dally fast enough, I’ll let you have a glimpse. Sander Cohen and my Songbird await you at the Fleet Hall!!”


End file.
